


safe and warm in your coat of arms

by thisisthefamilybusiness



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Marriage Proposal, Post-Dishonored 2 (Video Game), Post-Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Post-Low Chaos Ending, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Royal Spymaster Billie Lurk, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, congratulations to this ship for finally being marked as a common tag!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 01:19:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12738129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisthefamilybusiness/pseuds/thisisthefamilybusiness
Summary: The ring tucked in Billie’s jacket pocket feels impossibly heavy, tucked next to the personal stationary of the Empress. Billie has never been a grand romantic, good at sweeping gestures or poetic words, so she takes a deep breath, and plucks the ring from her pocket with her free hand.Alexandria sits up, hair mussed, propping her head up on Billie’s shoulder. Billie holds the ring out in front of herself, inspecting the filigree flower and its center diamond in the pinky-orange light of the setting sun.“Oh,” Alexandria breathes.“Yeah.” Billie laughs.“Is it—” Alexandria hesitates, sitting upright and shifting to the side so she can see Billie’s face. “I don’t want to be presumptuous, but—”“It’s for you, yeah.” Void, Billie’s never had a way with words, but she’s normally not so damn tongue-tied.





	safe and warm in your coat of arms

**Author's Note:**

> the title of this word document was originally "a happy ending for two tired middle-aged bisexuals"
> 
> title from "angela" by the lumineers

The tiara—a simple bandeau of Karnaca silver and diamonds, arranged into overlapping circles—glitters under the jeweler’s spotlights.

It would be a stupid purchase.

But what else does Billie have to spend her money on? The salary that _Her Imperial Majesty_ insists on paying Billie is more than Billie could possibly spend in one lifetime, and most of her living costs are covered by the Crown, anyway. It isn’t as though Dunwall Tower charges her room and board.

Alexandria would tell her it was too much, that she rarely had opportunities to wear anything so elaborate.

Then again, when Billie did finally take the ring she’s been carrying in her pocket for eight months now out, finally showed Alexandria the letter that Emily (with an infuriatingly knowing smile) had penned inviting her to be the Royal Physician—maybe Alexandria would come to Dunwall, and there was never a shortage of formal events Billie had to attend. Or maybe Billie would go to Karnaca, and take Alexandria to the theatre once a month, one of the few aristocratic events that Billie had taken a genuine liking to.

It would look beautiful on Alexandria, wouldn’t it? And for all her protesting that Billie shouldn’t spend so much on her, she’d try it on and give that little hesitant smile—that little pleased expression.

Billie gestures for the jeweler’s assistant to come over.

* * *

There are many faces Billie sees Alexandria wear—one for talking to her patients and staff at Addermire, one for dealing with the Duke and the bureaucrats, one for being _the_ e _steemed Doctor Alexandria Hypatia_ —but Billie’s favorite is always the one that only she really gets to see, the soft unguarded expression that’s reserved just for their private moments.

Moments like this—sitting on a blanket on the docks at Addermire, watching the sun set with Alexandria’s head in her lap, fingers brushing through her hair, sitting in quiet.

The ring tucked in Billie’s jacket pocket feels impossibly heavy, tucked next to the personal stationary of the Empress. Billie has never been a grand romantic, good at sweeping gestures or poetic words, so she takes a deep breath, and plucks the ring from her pocket with her free hand.

Alexandria sits up, hair mussed, propping her head up on Billie’s shoulder. Billie holds the ring out in front of herself, inspecting the filigree flower and its center diamond in the pinky-orange light of the setting sun.

“Oh,” Alexandria breathes.

“Yeah.” Billie laughs.

“Is it—” Alexandria hesitates, sitting upright and shifting to the side so she can see Billie’s face. “I don’t want to be presumptuous, but—”

“It’s for you, yeah.” Void, Billie’s never had a way with words, but she’s normally not so damn tongue-tied. “If you want it to be. If you want to be—”

“Of course,” rushes Alexandria, blushing pink. “Yes.”

Billie’s hands are clumsy as she slides the ring on Alexandria’s finger, brings the other woman’s fingertips to her lips to kiss it. They’d both spent so long finding themselves in the aftermath of their lives, always just a cog in someone else’s plan.

Maybe this was finally a new beginning. Their own beginnings.

“I love you,” Billie murmurs against Alexandria’s skin.

Alexandria’s face still burns pink as she stares at the ring, expression softly awed. “I love you, too,” she says back, and her smile is the brightest thing Billie’s ever seen.

* * *

The tiara glitters just as brightly in the lights of Dunwall Tower’s ballroom as it did in the jewelry store, pinned carefully into Alexandria’s neatly styled hair.

Of course she’d stammered a refusal when Billie had opened the wooden case in her—no, _their_ room (and Billie’s room in the Tower didn’t feel so terribly massive anymore, with Alexandria sharing part of it), but the coin had already been spent, Billie argued.

Besides, it looks beautiful on Alexandria, against the silver in her hair and the deep green of her velvet gown. Worth every damn coin Billie paid for it, especially when the blue-blooded aristocratic women fawn over Alexandria.

 _Especially_ when the guard has to announce them as _Her Lordship Billie Hypatia, Royal Spymaster, and her wife, Doctor Alexandria Hypatia, Royal Physician_ , as Billie carefully holds Alexandria’s hand when they enter the ballroom.

A new name for a new beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> again, part of my 500 words/day writing challenge! I've been working on a longer piece for something unrelated, but I wanted to take a break to write something nice and overwhelmingly sentimental. 
> 
> the tiara I'm referencing is the Diamond Daisy Tiara of Norway, and you can find it and my other inspiration images (including Alexandria's engagement ring!) [here on my pinterest](https://www.pinterest.com/marchenribbon/gifts-for-hypatia/), where I also curate the finest boards of jewelry-based Dishonored lore (look, if a game gives me the chance to write about tiaras, I am absolutely going to write about tiaras). 
> 
> talk to me on [on tumblr](http://officialclaricestarling.tumblr.com) | [buy me a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/clstarling/) & i'll write you a ficlet!


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